Deb DeBare

This will be one of the last Mondays in which advocates accompany victims of domestic violence to court. The domestic violence court advocacy program is closing on Mondays because of state budget cuts. State support for victims of domestic violence has been on the decline for six years.

It’s hard to turn on the news these days without hearing about another nonprofit in financial trouble. Advent House – the state’s first homeless shelter – is without a director because it can’t afford one. John Hope Settlement House is bleeding $30,000 a month. And the Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolence has laid off a third of its staff.